Thursday, December 17, 2009

2 steps forward, 1 step back?

When you're a movie geek, some days look like this:

ITEM: After departing the "X-Men" series to make a perhaps-too-introspective "Superman" movie that me and like five other people still like and, in doing so, freeing up the combined efforts of Tom Rothman and McG to steer the franchise into one of the most spectacular protracted artistic-suicides in memory (seriously, at least the original "Batman" movies ENDED after the fourth one... they made a whole OTHER MOVIE after "X3!!!"); Bryan Singer will apparently RETURN to direct "X-Men: First Class," a prequel (reboot?) with Cyclops, Jean, Storm etc. in their student-age days at the Xavier School. So, "Harry Potter" but with the X-Men. SOLD! Best of all, this almost-certainly means no Wolverine, so the other characters might actually get to DO something for a change.http://www.joblo.com/singer-back-for-x-men

But then...

ITEM: "Spider-Man 4" is apparently officially "stalled" (as in, not moving forward) because - surprise surprise! - Sony and Sam Raimi are fighting over the villain. Raimi wants Silver Age mainstay "The Vulture," Sony wants... NOT The Vulture. If true, this is exactly what happened with #3: Raimi wanted Sandman and Vulture to continue his preferred trend of using the classic Spidey enemies, Sony (and Marvel) forced his hand for the more marketable Venom. Amazingly, damn near EVERYONE - even non-geeks - is aware that this went down last time, yet they're possibly at it AGAIN? I wonder who the studio-preferred nemesis would be... they wouldn't REALLY try and make him go with the (amazingly even MORE worthless than Venom "Carnage," would they??)http://iesb.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7951:spider-man-4-production-on-indefinite-hold&catid=43:exclusive-features&Itemid=73UPDATE: AICN is reporting that the Spider-Man story isn't true, or rather that the work-stoppage isn't true, since the "arguing over the bad guy" thing has been out there for a few weeks now: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/43405ALSO, apparently it's called "Spider-M4N" now.

10 comments:

Dude, that sucks about Spider-Man 4. I'm for Raimi, let the Vulture be in the movie... Or maybe, have another three-way showdown, with the Vulture, Carnage, AND the Lizard! I love the Lizard, probably my favorite Spider-man villain.

In the first two movies, Sam Raimi did what he wanted and everything was cool. In the third, the studio f**ked with him and the movie went down hill. And they think that a repeat of that drama's a good thing? You know Sony, when you've got a director who can both spin money and not embarrass you, let him do his job.

AS for X-men: First Class, I'm looking forward to a wolverine-less X-men. I love wolvie, but the X-Men are much bigger than just him.

You know, I always wanted to ask.. What's with all that hate towards X-3? Well, OK, for a comic book fan that it probably was painful to watch the slaughter of your beloved characters... But what about forgetting about being a comic book fan for a sec, and think about X-3 just as a movie?

I wached that trilogy several times and I just can't understand your hate towards part 3. I even think that it's better then the 1-st one. And pretty close tothe awesomeness of the second one. And not just as an action film. Story is pretty damn good (and how could it be bad, considering it's based on Whedon's "Gifted"?).

The sad irony is that even though the technology has finally made it possible to faithfully realize all our beloved comic book heroes, the ones in charge of bringing them to us don't give a rat's ass about characters or storylines, as long as it turns a profit.

X-3 suffered from the same basic flaws as Spiderman 3, although it wasn't nearly as painful a watch. The problem was still the same; It tried to cram too many subplots into one movie, and overall damaged the metaplot, more or less beyond repair. Note that its current sequel and proposed sequel are both prequels or reboots and not actual sequels.

It's really NOT that enjoyable a movie, and left me quite cold. It didn't fill me with screaming rage like Spiderman 3 did, but that's really just the opposite argument of "What were you expecting, Citizen Kane?"

Happy to hear about X-men, and hoping but not expecting Gambit or Emma Frost to pop up again. I loved the movies, a lot more then I did the Spiderman ones, and for the imperfections I kinda loved them all the more. Did X3 have issues? Yes. But I also don't understand all the hate it gets. I've watched the whole series countless times and both love that we are getting some prequel stuff but also hope we get a sequel one of these days.

(I also don't get the Origin hate. Maybe everyone wants serious films! like Nolan's Batman, but I go in wanting a B-movie and get just that. I loved the side characters, liked how they did Sabertooth and Wolverine even if I would like something to tie this in with how it fits with the first movie, and overall this is a movie that I'm glad I own so I can see it as often as I want.

....I also did like the X-man: Evolution series so maybe I just have weird tastes)

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About Me

Bob is a part-time independent filmmaker, part-time amateur film critic and full time Movie Geek. He is heterosexual, a pisces, and a severely lapsed Catholic. He is a tireless enemy of censorship, considers his personal politics "Libertine" and enjoys acting as a full time irritant to overly serious people of ALL political stripes.